maxmin

With an interest rate (APR) of 0.1% on BD CD's, why on earth would anyone buy them? What is the early termination penalty?

oldpenny16

Good luck in your house buying!

Don't close any credit card accounts either. That takes off points from your credit score as well.

outpaddling

Seems you are absolutely right.
This is what Citi said: "We regret that the Citi Executive AAdvantage MasterCard account is not part of the CitiGold program, and we will be unable to waive the annual membership fee for this account."

The $450 annual fee is tough to swallow since we already have Lifetime Admiral's Club. If we can spend enough on this Executibe card in a couple of years to hit 3MM and earn 4 SWU, then the annual fee might be worth it.

Ritz

MM will only count on the new card for 1 additional year (until 12/1/12).

oldpenny16

This is not worth it for me. Just not. I'll get to 2MM by flying sooner or later.

Keith Flyer Maven

Agree. I must say I am surprised by the interest in the $450 card. People seem to be forgetting that they will continue to earn RDMs with their regular (free) card. If the formula is:

X miles * (value of MM miles - value of non-MM RDMs)

how great would that number have to be to exceed $450? This is especially true for PLTs and EXP's who already have the status (although not the eVIPs). I am desperately trying to get to 2MM, and the new CC would help me, but I can't justify the expense when I can still earn RDMs for free with a standard card.

welookgood.com

Which is why you should expect mass cancelations the following yr

thetravelabstract

I completely agree with you. For me AAdvantage is about minimizing the cost of flying. Having LT Plat would not reduce mileage costs for me because I fly on AA metal with award bookings. Maybe if I fly on oneworld partners like BA where there is not equivalent of Gold status, paying the extra $450 to reach for LT Plat would make sense.

I am interested in the demographics of the people who are trying to qualify for LT status before the changes are implemented.
Are you non-elites who only use Citi AA Cards and RDM Bonus miles to earn LT Status?
Are you GLD/PLT status and want to get to LT Status before it becomes a harder task?

I fall into the first category. I do not fly enough to qualify for status but I do earn tons of RDM Bonuses. This change would make LT status unreachable for me. This was a nice perk AAdvantage program but I am still focused on cutting travel costs and if AA continues to offer good RDM bonuses I will be there to get them.

outpaddling

I totally missed that 12/12 deadline in the fine print! Thanks for pointing it out. Mrs Outpaddling now has 2.5MM, so she would need to earn 500K miles to get those last 4 SWU. The annual credit card spend is over $200,000, so I will need to go back and read the tips on this thread for the remaining $300,000.

danorum

I am not getting this card, but it will be interesting to see what other promos (or even an extension of this MM miles earning opportunity next year) happen in the future.

Dan

2millionquest

I have been EXP since late 2008 and will requal as EXP for 2012. I was PLT for six years before that, GLD for less than a year (the first year I learned that AA even offered such a thing as status -- when my GLD card just showed up in the mail one day, a complete surprise to me). I joined the Aadvantage program in 1993, the same year I got my first Citi Aadvantage credit card (which I still have and use).

I learned of the "secret" MM program sometime in 2007, when I had ~700K lifetime miles. I got serious enough about it at that point to cross the first MM mark on Halloween 2008. I've continued to passionately pursue the goal of reaching 2MM, though I never churned cc's (80K of my LT miles came from three cc sign-up bonuses) or played the mint game. The rest has all been flying, double-mile promos, car rental and hotel miles, e-shopping, Bing games, a little dining, and grabbing every measly little 500- or 1000-mile bonus offer that I could get my grubby little hands on. I've never bought or been gifted miles by another Aadvantage member. I am currently at 1.912K. I expect to be at ~1.95K by 1 Dec, and ~1.96K by year end.

According to the meticulous records I have compiled via flightmemory.com, I have currently flown 561,102 LT BIS miles with AA. That number represents 81.2% of all miles I have ever flown. Another 31,034 miles (or 4.5%) have been with BA, which I, naturally, have credited to AA whenever possible.

Since I will, in all likelihood, be able to earn 40K BIS miles next year, I should hit the 2MM mark with relative ease. While I am doing a few things to try to bulk up my MM balance prior to 1 Dec, I'm not really doing anything extraordinary.

It has always been something of a struggle for me to achieve and maintain EXP. I fly only as a leisure traveler and always on my own dime. The economy being what it is, blah, blah, I don't expect to requal as EXP for 2013. I know I'll get to soft land to PLT in 2013; but beyond that, I'd likely be SOL without the LT program.

So that's been my goal all along: Reach 2MM while I can so I'll at least have the solace of LT PLT when my glory days as an EXP come to an end.

KtownTraveler

From your handle we never would have guessed.

2millionquest

Ya think?

Redhead

I've been EXP for the last five years. However, within the next year or two, I expect my travel patterns to change significantly as my work responsibilities change. When travelling on my own dime I expect to just maintain Gold, therefore LT Platinum is valuable to me as a way to continue to earn 100% bonus on RDM and enjoy higher upgrade priority. As soon as my most recent LAN Chile flight posts, I will cross the 2MM threshold. I continue to be focused on RDM since the free travel is very important to both me and my family.

Stripy

I think there are people who fall into a number of different categories. There are those like you for whom Aadvantage is a cost minimizer and there are some like me for whom Aadvantage is specifically a premium travel cost minimizer (traveling up front as often as possible for as little as possible). I already pay for Admirals Club membership and I travel abroad a lot (so the no foreign transaction fee is nice) so the new card becomes tempting. Add to that the fact that my travel patterns this year will push me into EXP territory but may not next year and the extra EQMs could be worth the $450 fee alone so it really is each to their own.


Like I mentioned I'm probably going to be EXP next year but I have enjoyed nothing short of great success with upgrades whilst PLT. That fact alone is enough to make me push to earn as many million miler miles while I can to make it easier to earn LT PLT going forward. I'm under no illusion that I can maintain EXP for more than a couple of years and after that my travel may dwindle down to 35-40k per year so it would be great to be able to lock up LT PLT as soon as possible to make sure I can enjoy PLT benefits when my yearly travel would ordinarily leave me short.

FWIW I probably wouldn't make the same effort if my target was LT GLD as I don't think the benefits are nearly as good but, like I said before, each to their own.